UK retailer Marks and Spencer has announced that they will start charging for plastic bags in their stores nationwide. Shoppers will pay 5p for a bag and money raised will be donated to the M+S Groundwork charity which invests in green spaces.

Something like 13bn free bags are distributed each year and take 1,000 years to decay.

M+S tested out the idea in 50 stores recently and found (not really surprisingly) a 70% drop in demand for bags. Great that they are doing there bit but when you think that Germany found a way of not using free plastic bags almost 20 years ago, China is to ban free bags nationwide and Ireland reduced its bag problem by sticking a tax on them, it does make you wonder whether leaving this to individual retailers is the right move for the UK.[Via: BBC News]

Just to give you an idea of plastic bag consumption, have a look at the numbers below calculated by www.reusablebags.com

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